Black Legacy: America's Hidden Heritage

Drawing on a vast wealth of evidence—folktales, oral histories, religious rituals, and music—this book explores the pervasive if often unacknowledged influence of African traditions on American life. The result is a bold reinterpretation of American history that disrupts conventional assumptions and turns racial stereotypes inside out.

William D. Piersen begins by examining a series of African and African-American oral narratives that interpret the experience of slavery from a distinctly bla...